Question

What are persistent pesticides? Discuss the problems associated with their persistent nature

Answer 1

Answer:

Pesticides have now become an integral part of our modern life and are used to protect agricultural land, stored grain, flower gardens as well as to eradicate the pests transmitting dangerous infectious diseases. It has been estimated that globally nearly $38 billion are spent on pesticides each year (Pan-Germany, 2012). Manufacturers and researchers are designing new formulations of pesticides to meet the global demand. Ideally, the applied pesticides should only be toxic to the target organisms, should be biodegradable and eco-friendly to some extent (Rosell et al., 2008). Unfortunately, this is rarely the case as most of the pesticides are non-specific and may kill the organisms that are harmless or useful to the ecosystem